I have a terrible secret

I have a terrible secret.

One that could RUIN my professional reputation - and get me kicked out of the secret club that Peter Lohmann invited me to.

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I almost never open and use Notion (our knowledge management platform, that I am obsessed with).

Maaaayyybbbeeeee once a week.

I clean some things out of a few project boards, maybe write a thing or two - review something…. but that’s it.

Our team, on the other the other hand - lives out of there.

I currently have two full time “Notion People”, and all they do is build our Notion for our various companies.

They are freaking savants - and can do things I’d never dreamed of doing.

How do I square this apparent hypocrisy?

Well - I’m busy.

I mean, I’m not really that busy - but I tell people that so they think I’m important or something.

I want my team to use the hell out of Notion - but I don’t work out of it.

I spend my time talking, reading, writing, and thinking - none of which really require me to live in that platform.

For example, I do my personal organization out of Apple Notes.

It’s fast and ubiquitous.

Notion is way too much (in my opinion) for a personal organization system.

Now - I do have my assistant (and others) send me stuff from Notion, track everything there, and even look things up to send them to me from time to time.

Here is an example of me “using” Notion, without actually opening up myself.

I would send these via email/Whatsapp/Slack.

• “Here’s a copy of my passport, use for this plane ticket, and file in Notion

• “I saw you are stuck working on XYZ in your project board, you can delay that for now”.

• Create a new Notion Page and add Bob to it, let’s start collecting these podcast topics

Another easy example of “using Notion without opening Notion” is the weekly email I get from my assistant.

She takes a screenshot of our Notion Project board, and pastes it into an email, which she sends to me.

Why don’t I just open up Notion (…I have access)?

Well - it’s faster to open an email, and I can review it quicker.

Example below:

Part of my assistant (or my team’s) job is to keep Notion (including this project board) up to date, so that when I want to know the status of everything - I can swoop into Notion at well and know where to find everything.

I don’t need to ask people for updates - it’s all there if I feel like jumping in.

That doesn’t mean that I have to live and work out of it everyday.

Another example:

I can push (via Zapier) messages from Slack, directly into my assistant’s project management board in Notion from Slack.

Then I select “Push to Zapier” (You can also do this natively with Notion) and I can push the message to a database (the project management board from above) in Notion.

Now it lands here:

In sharing my "don’t use Notion" approach to using Notion, I aim to challenge the notion (pun intended) that one-size-fits-all when it comes to productivity tools.

Tools are designed to make our lives easier, not to dictate the terms of our daily routines.

Your workflow should serve you, not the other way around.

The key takeaway here is flexibility.

We often get caught up in what we "should" be doing with a particular tool or system.

However, as long as the job gets done effectively and efficiently, who's to say which method is right or wrong?

Utilize systems and tools in a manner that best complements your work style, even if that means you're not the one actively clicking around in the app.

So, go ahead.

Make the tool work for you, rather than becoming a slave to the tool. Whether you're a Notion aficionado or a closet occasional user like me, remember that the ultimate goal is to optimize your workflow and, consequently, your business.

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

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Passage of the Week - Long, But Worth It:

The Last Question, by Isaac Asimov

“The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five-dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way…”

  (The Great Story Continues Here…5 Minute Read, With A Huge Twist at The End)   

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